


If We Had More Time

by kyrdwyn



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Father-Daughter Relationship, Feels, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-21
Updated: 2013-07-21
Packaged: 2017-12-20 21:28:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/892066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyrdwyn/pseuds/kyrdwyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If they had more time, he would make a different choice</p>
            </blockquote>





	If We Had More Time

**Author's Note:**

> So, after my third viewing of 'Pacific Rim', I came away with Stacker-Mako Father-Daughter feels. And so fic happened. No beta, hastily written. First fic in this fandom. Some details taken from the Official Novelization of 'Pacific Rim' (highly recommend it!)

Stacker Pentecost watched the fight in the Kwoon with a growing sense of dismay. This fight was exactly why he'd been reluctant to allow Mako as a pilot candidate for Raleigh Beckett and Gipsy Danger. They were moving in synch, in harmony, practically Drifting as they attacked each other with the hanbō, defending by anticipation of the other's moves.

They were Drift compatible. They would probably be as good a pilot team as Raleigh and Yancy Becket had been, as Herc and Chuck Hansen were, or the Wei triplets and the Kaidanovskys. 

"I've seen enough."

He had. He knew. Raleigh wanted Mako as his co-pilot, and Stacker could see why. They were compatible. 

"Report to the Shatterdome in two hours to find out who your partner is," he told Raleigh. He didn’t look at Mako.

Stacker left, leaving a disappointed Mako behind, though he knew she would never say anything to him. Raleigh likely would, but Raleigh had the experience in the Drift, in a Jaeger, to back up his feelings, and a known tendency for insubordination. Mako wouldn’t, out of respect for him as her adoptive father, her Sensei, her commanding officer.

_If we had more time,_ he'd told Mako. Stacker stared out the window of his office toward Hong Kong. If this wasn't the last active Shatterdome, if they weren't down to their last four Jaegers.

If he thought there was a chance of anyone coming back alive from Operation Pitfall...

Stacker closed his eyes, remembering that long ago day in Tokyo, standing on the top of Coyote Tango, his last mission in a Jaeger. He'd looked down at the young girl in the devastated street, the one living thing in miles. She looked up at him with an expression that might be awe.

He'd taken her in, raised her as his own. His superiors at the PPDC had reprimanded him for it, questionable judgment they’d called it, but Stacker had never regretted it. He'd let her join the Jaeger program, let her restore Gipsy Danger when she'd asked, when they'd needed a fourth Jaeger for the op. She was determined to pilot Gispy Danger, determined to avenge her family. Stacker understood, but knew that her memories of the day they died, her need for vengeance could cause trouble in the Drift. 

Briefly, he wondered how Herc felt, going into battle every time with his son, Drifting with him. Chuck Hansen had Daddy issues as big as a Jaeger, yet they worked together in the Drift. Stacker could wish for the same thing for himself and Mako, but that was futile. It would kill him, and he wouldn't do to her what had happened to him, to Raleigh Becket. Tamsin Sevier had had a seizure and neural collapse in the Conn-Pod, Yancy Becket had died in the fight with Knifehead, but the end result for their co-pilots was having half of you ripped out of your head, and having to continue on alone, somehow keeping your Jaeger going in combat. Somehow keeping your mind intact.

If they had more time…

But they didn't have more time. It had been two days since Sydney, and they couldn't predict exactly when the next kaiju would come through the Breach. Could be a week, could only be an hour. They needed two pilots in Gipsy Danger. Mako knew more about the Mark III Jaegers than anyone in the Shatterdome, other than Raleigh Becket. 

Could he send his daughter to die?

_Haven't you heard? It's the end of the world. Where would you rather die? Here? Or in a Jaeger?_

Raleigh Becket had chosen the Jaeger. Stacker would choose the Jaeger, too, if he could.

So would Mako.

Stacker sighed. Fathers were supposed to protect their daughters. Now he had to trust her training, and let her protect him, and the rest of the world. He walked over to the chest where the shoe she'd given him, that long ago day in Tokyo, rested. He pulled out the memento.

He'd made her a promise. Mako would get her shot at being a Jaeger pilot. 

Holding the shoe carefully in its protective wrapping, he left his office. Turning onto the corridor where Mako's quarters were, he saw Raleigh Becket leaving his. The young Ranger paused, going up to Mako's door, looking like he was going to knock. Instead he sighed and turned toward the Shatterdome.

He still wanted Mako as his co-pilot. Well, he was about to get what he wanted. Both Rangers were.

Stacker Pentecost knocked on his daughter’s door, and prayed he was making the right choice, for him, for her.

For the world.


End file.
